Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.

Politics

Washington, D.C. "Suffrage art, January 29, 1921." A few months after passage of the 19th Amendment gave American women the right to vote. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

Feb. 25, 1920. Washington, D.C. "Herbert J. Drane, Congressman from Florida, is from Tarpon Springs, which is said to be the largest sponge market in the world. Mr Drane's office gives the appearance of a permanent sponge exhibit. The walls are covered with sponges of every size and variety. Photo shows Mr. Drane with some of his choice specimens." National Photo glass negative. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1925. "Protesters" is all it says on the caption card for this National Photo glass negative showing what seems to be a meeting of the "Communist Party Young Communist League." View full size.

September 1952. "Republican presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower campaigning in the Midwest. Includes Eisenhower on a whistle-stop tour, in motorcades and addressing large crowds at political rally in South Bend, Indiana." Large-format color transparency by Charlotte Brooks for the Look magazine assignment "The G.O.P.'s future will be up to Ike." View full size.

Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.